Smoke Cancels First Two Days Of Masters Track Championships

Geezer Jock does not have anything to report from the first two days of the 2026 Masters Outdoor Championships because....they didn't happen.

Wildfires from Canada and the U.S. Midwest brought a soupy haze over Geneva, Ohio, east of Cleveland. The air quality was dangerous and officials did the only thing they could and cancelled.

The Geezer Jock newsletter will have feature stories in next week's edition.

You can watch the livestream of Saturday and Sunday action on USATF TV for $12.99. Just make sure to cancel Sunday night or it will bill you again next week.

Still, I want you to read this post from Liz Sheppard on dealing with this Mother Nature/Human calamity:

Hey All - remember we are athletes for competition and health. It would rock if there were no fires for not only this event but those affected directly.

Safety for all matters so we can compete another day. Nobody expects natural disasters to dump a bunch of particulate matter in the air. Even with great contingency plans, a large scale track meet is expensive and full of moving parts. It sucks to be wanting to compete and having this happen. It would suck more to not take all of our health into consideration.

Check in on your fellow athletes and keep the camaraderie going. Let's stop the "scam" talk and know that hard lessons for future contingency plans are being learned. Let's hope that at least some of the schedule can happen and we can cheer our fellow athletes, even if our event is shortened or cancelled.

Look around and see your fellow athletes and officials of all ages and know your health and wellbeing is heavily factored in so we can see each other at another event